California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, held a small business round table discussion on Friday at Spaghettini Restaurant in Seal Beach.
State Assemblyman for the 72nd District Travis Allen was among the guest speakers and Los Alamitos City Councilman Dean Grose and Cypress Mayor Pro Tem Leroy Mills were among those in attendance. Allen spoke of upcoming legislation that could help curb the lawsuit abuse in California, mostly coming as a result of frivolous lawsuits for Prop 65 and American’s For Disability Act violations.
Part of the problem, according to CALA and Allen, is that businesses have no option to fix problems if they are found to be in violation. This has led to what Allen referred to as “shakedown” lawsuits by lawyers looking for a costly settlement from businesses. Allen said that while California has eight percent of the nations population, it has 40 percent of the ADA lawsuit filings.
“Businesses need to band together to be stronger against these frivolous lawsuits,” Allen said.
CALA is pushing for the passage of upcoming assembly bill 227 as a step in the right direction in curbing abusive lawsuits against businesses for not having posted Prop 65 warning signs. The current code allows for fines of up to $2,500 per day that the sign was not posted. CALA Executive Director Tom Scott said that these frivolous lawsuits are more damaging to small businesses than fees and taxes.
“A lawsuit will put you out of business a lot faster than a tax or regulation,” Scott said.